The Kindness of Strangers
by L'alto
Summary: Draco had never known kindness in his life, so he was surprised when it finally came to him after the war, in the form of the most unexpected people.


_**The Kindness of Strangers**_

Draco had never known kindness or love in his life.

Sure, he had parents and friends, but he had grown up in a house of Malfoys and a bunch of Slytherins. At home, all he knew was distant politeness and impeccable manners, and at school, all he knew was cunning plots and carefully disguised barbs. It wasn't that his parents and friends hated him or anything: it was just who they were, and it was just the way things were.

Thus, he had carefully constructed a wall of ice around his heart when he was just a child, to prevent himself from getting hurt by the coldness of the people who were supposed to love him. Love. What a foreign concept.

This was partly why he wasn't all that sad when he was treated with hostility upon his arrival back at Hogwarts after the war. He had never known kindness, so how was he supposed to miss it?

That's why he was surprised when kindness and friendship finally came to him unexpectedly, in the form of bushy hair, freckles and a lightning-shaped scar.

**OoOoO**

"Hey, Draco."

Draco looked up from his Potions essay, and blinked in surprise when he saw who was walking towards him.

"Granger." He replied as politely as he could, before he looked back down at his Potions essay, hoping that she would get the hint and leave him alone. Since when did she call him _Draco, _anyway?

However, Granger refused to take the hint, and sat herself down onto the empty chair beside him, causing him to mentally slap himself on the forehead. He had thought Granger was smart; he couldn't understand why she couldn't take a simple hint. Hopefully, if he ignored her enough, she would go away.

Once again, Granger remained happily oblivious and peered over his shoulder. "Ooh, is that the Potions essay that's due next week? I finished mine already, but I have no idea if I got the facts right at all. Honestly, Slughorn's a lousy teacher, I have no idea what he's saying half the time. Can you help me look through my essay and see if it is all right? Please?"

He looked at her skeptically. Granger not knowing anything was about as likely as Hippogriffs suddenly learning how to swim. He was about to refuse to help her, until he saw her earnest expression, and he found himself nodding before he knew what was happening.

"Thanks Draco, you're the best!" She squealed, before rummaging in her bag and passing a piece of clean parchment to him.

Frowning, he looked through her essay, and by the time he finished reading it, his suspicions that Granger was only pretending not to know what was going on in Potions was confirmed.

"It's fine." He said shortly, passing her back the essay.

"Ooh, thank you so much!" She replied, before putting her essay back into her bag and standing up. She seemed to hesitate for a moment, before impulsively hugging him and walking out of the library.

Draco stared at her retreating back in shock. What was that all about?

**OoOoO**

Once again, Draco found himself cornered by a group of students, Zacharias Smith's wand pointed straight at his throat.

Honestly, he wondered what had possessed the Sorting Hat to put a bully like Smith into a house as mellow as Hufflepuff.

"You don't belong here, Malfoy. You deserve to rot in Azkaban for all you have done." Smith snarled, jabbing the wand further into Draco's throat, and Draco tried his best to control the fear that was rising up inside him.

Smith's next words made it obvious he had failed. "Look at you, poor Death Eater baby about to cry just because little old me is pointing my wand at you. You're nothing but a coward, an evil coward, and if the Ministry refuses to punish you just because Potter spoke up for you, then I will!" Smith raised his wand, and Draco closed his eyes, afraid of what would come next.

"_Stupefy!"_ A few seconds after he heard the spell, he realised he wasn't dead yet, so he opened his eyes a crack to find Smith on the floor, unconscious. Shocked, his eyes flew open to see an angry Weasley glaring at his attackers.

"Oi, leave him alone, you hear me! You've bullied him enough already! I suggest the rest of you bugger off right now unless you want to end up like him." Weasley tilted his head in the direction of Smith, still passed out on the floor, and the rest of his attackers fled.

"Malfoy, you okay?" Weasley walked over to where Draco was still backed up against the wall, and Draco was shocked to see genuine concern in his eyes.

"Yes." Draco replied stiffly.

One corner of Weasley's mouth lifted in a small smile. "You looked pretty terrified there, Malfoy."

"Shut up." Draco growled, causing Weasley to break out into laughter. Draco stared. He'd never heard Weasley laugh before, unless the laughter was derisive laughter aimed at him. It was...different. Nice, even.

"Why did you do it?" The words were out before he could stop them.

Weasley's laughter stopped immediately, and though his smile remained, it was sad. "We've all been punished enough, Malfoy. Especially those who never deserved it." Weasley's intense gaze froze Draco on the spot, and he remained there even as Weasley turned around and walked away.

"Weasley! Thank you!" Draco called out just as Weasley reached the end of the corridor and turned right.

He swore he could almost hear a faint "No problem, mate!" echo towards him.

Only later, as he lay in bed trying to sleep, did he realise that maybe Weasley hadn't been talking about himself when he talked about the people who never deserved to be punished.

Maybe, just maybe, Weasley knew about how he had been forced to do the things he did, and that by torturing others he had been torturing himself as well.

Maybe, just maybe, when Weasley talked about the people who didn't deserve to be punished, he was talking about Draco.

**OoOoO**

Draco sat alone at his seat at the back of the dungeons, waiting for class to start. When the school term had started, he had realised that he was the only Slytherin among the Eighth Years who came back to Hogwarts. He didn't miss his friends, not really: they had never really been very close, after all, and he had already expected to find himself alone during classes.

What he didn't expect was for Potter to seat himself beside Draco and turn around to give him a very lopsided grin, green eyes glinting behind his glasses.

"Hello. I hope you don't mind me sitting here. Ron and Hermione are already paired up, and everywhere else is full."

Draco glanced around the classroom. On the contrary, about half the classroom was empty, and about half the empty seats were beside people who didn't have a pair as well.

Draco nodded slowly, then turned back to the front as Slughorn entered the classroom.

For the rest of the lesson, Draco listened to Potter chatter on happily about anything and everything under the sun, while he simply nodded and grunted in agreement whenever Potter asked him something. His mind was preoccupied by the bizarreness of the whole situation he found himself in. Granger was hugging him, Weasley was saving him from attackers, and Potter was willingly pairing himself up with Draco when there were many other people around he could have gone to. Why, Potter would be calling him Draco as well next!

When Potter really did ask him to "pass the powdered bat wings, Draco", he couldn't take it anymore.

"Potter. Why are you helping me?" He burst out.

Potter simply looked at him with a small sad smile, green eyes looking intently at his own, and Draco couldn't hold back a gasp when he realised how similar it was to the look Weasley had given him just days before.

"We've all been punished enough, Draco." He said lightly, before his smiled lightened and he continued chattering about how the candies at Honeydukes were the best in the world, leaving Draco to shake his head in confusion,

What was that all about?

**OoOoO**

"Take that back!"

"No, I don't think I will."

"Harry, stop, he's not worth it!"

Draco walked into the Great Hall on Monday morning to witness a most peculiar scene.

Granger and Weasley both held on to Potter's hands, visibly restraining him, while Potter himself glared at Michael Corner from across the Ravenclaw table. Corner himself was smirking, one corner of his mouth bleeding and his eye swollen shut from a bruise. He shook his head in wonder, and sidled quietly into the hall, not wanting to be noticed and caught up in the fight.

"Yeah, _Harry_, Malfoy's not worth it, why are you beating me up for him?" Corner asked.

"Why you-" Harry pulled harder against Granger and Weasley, but they managed to stop him from attacking Corner again.

"I wasn't talking about Draco, Michael, I was talking about you!" Granger yelled back.

Draco paused just as his hand lifted to place the toast into his mouth. Wait. Potter and Corner were fighting over him?

More importantly, the Golden Trio were fighting and standing up for _him_?

"I don't understand you, Harry, why are you even fighting for him? He's nothing but a pathetic, cowardly, sniveling, evil Death Eater!" Corner sneered, but Draco could hear a tinge of genuine curiosity in his voice.

"He wasn't! All he wanted to do was to protect his family! Vol-Voldemort would have killed his parents if Mal-Draco hadn't joined him! What would you have done in his place?" Weasley shouted.

"I still wouldn't have joined him! I would have refused!" Corner replied earnestly.

"And let your parents die?" Potter roared, once again trying to break away from Weasley and Granger's strong grip, but failing all the same.

Corner seemed to have realised what he had said, and in front of whom, too late, and he spluttered a bit before continuing his rant. "That's not related to what we were talking about! He's evil! He deserves to be punished!"

Potter suddenly seemed to sag, the fight going out of him in an instant, and Draco could see the same happening to Granger and Weasley.

"We've all been punished enough, Michael." Potter said softly.

"Even those who don't deserve it." Granger added equally softly.

They turned away to walk back to the Gryffindor table, leaving Corner to stare at them uncomprehendingly. Draco could feel Corner's confusion mirrored in his own face.

What was that all about?

**OoOoO**

"Oi, Draco!"

Draco looked up from his book to see the Golden Trio walking towards where he was sitting beneath the oak tree in the grounds. Weasley was waving at him wildly, a basket swinging from his arm, while Granger and Potter simply smiled at him.

"Weasley. Granger. Potter." He nodded at them, before looking back towards his book.

The next thing he knew, his book was being whipped out of his hand.

Draco turned to glare at Potter, who was holding the book in his right hand. "If you've come here just to give me a hard time-"

Potter smiled. "We just wanted to have lunch with you, Draco. We can hardly do that if you keep reading and ignore us."

Draco blinked. "Lunch?"

"Yes, the meal you generally eat in the afternoons? I'm sure you've heard of it?" Weasley smirked, before plonking himself onto the grass in front of Draco.

"I- but wait- hey- no one said you could eat here!" Draco protested.

"We said so. Water or pumpkin juice, Draco?" Granger asked matter-of-factly as she opened the basket and took out a jug of water, and Draco was shocked into replying her with "Water, please."

She poured him a cup of water, before pouring three more for herself, Weasley and Potter, and Draco could only sit there, stunned, as the Golden Trio started chatting around him like it was something they did every day, frequently attempting to include him in the conversation and not being fazed when he only replied with a simple "Mmhmm" or "nope".

As Draco went to bed later that night, he couldn't help but think that it had been a rather pleasant afternoon spent with the most unexpected people.

**OoOoO**

Draco squared his shoulders and approached the Gryffindor table during dinner, and saw the heads of many of the students lift to stare at him as he walked towards the Golden Trio.

"Potter, Granger, Weasley. A word, if you please." He said stiffly, and watched as Potter glanced at the other two and they shrugged.

"Sure, Draco." He replied.

"At a quieter place, if you will?" Draco pressed, and he was surprised to see the Golden Trio get up and follow him as he led them into a quiet classroom.

"Alright. Let me get this straight. I am not your charity case, your damsel in distress, your next quest. So I would appreciate it if you were to stop treating me like I was." Draco crossed his arms and glared at the Golden Trio.

"Oh Draco, we weren't trying to make you our charity case! We just wanted to be your friends." Granger replied earnestly.

"But why? I'm a Death Eater. I'm evil. I bullied you for years. I killed and injured people. Why would you want to befriend someone like me?" Draco asked.

"You're not evil, Draco. It took us a long time to understand that, understand that you've never shown others kindness because you've never been shown what it is, but now we know and we understand. And we forgive you for everything you've done, and we want to get to know who you really are and who you can be if your cold exterior is finally melted by the warmth and kindness friendship gives you." Potter replied. "Besides...I know what loneliness and coldness is like. It wasn't too long ago, after all, that I lived with relatives who hated me and kids my age who didn't dare to get close to me because they were scared of my cousin. I know the kind of loneliness that comes when no one loves you and makes you believe you're a freak, something to be hated and punished...and no one, no one at all, deserves that feeling."

Draco could feel the layer of ice he had built around his heart so long ago start to melt at Potter's words, and to his absolute horror, a tear escaped his left eye and slid down his cheek.

"But...don't you think I deserve to be punished, after all I've done?" Draco asked in a whisper.

That sad smile and that intense gaze appeared on all three of their faces, and Draco suddenly knew what their answer would be before they started talking.

"We've lost so much in the war...we've all been punished enough, Draco." Potter said sadly.

"Especially those who never deserved it." added Weasley.

"Especially us. Especially you." Granger added.

"You're not so bad, Draco, and we really want to be your friend." Weasley smiled.

"Please, Draco, let us in?" Granger asked, and Draco closed his eyes at the sincere tone.

When he opened his own silver eyes once again, it was to find three sets of eyes, one brown, one blue and one green, staring intently and earnestly at him.

How could he refuse under that gaze?

He nodded.

**OoOoO**

Years later, when Draco sits in front of the fire at Ron and Hermione's house, Harry sprawled out on the ground beside him, watching him and Ron play chess while Hermione knits a sweater for her grandchildren, he will ask them the same questions he has been asking them for years.

"Why did you decide to help and befriend me? We were nothing more than strangers, and I had done so many bad things and had treated you so poorly for years. Why were you so determined to befriend me?"

Their response is always the same: even the sad smile and intense gaze has remained the same, despite Hermione's greying hair and Ron's early wrinkles.

"We could tell someone great was hiding underneath that cold exterior, and we wanted to find out more about him."

"Besides, we'd all been punished enough, Draco."

"Especially those who never deserved it."


End file.
